“Does the Artist Matter? Painting Gods for Korean Shamans” with Laurel Kendall
In Korean shaman practice, images of gods hung in the shaman’s shrine transmit divine inspiration to shamans and are the site of daily offerings and supplications. Some paintings are produced by traditionalist painters who observe a variety of workshop taboos and as in some sense inspired by the gods they portray. Other shrine paintings are produced by commercial artists and sold in generic shaman supply shops and some shamans use cheap commercial prints. Do these distinctions matter? Anthropologist Laurel Kendall of Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History presents a dialogue between shamans, painters, and shop proprietors on the subject of a proper and efficacious shaman painting.
Where: BU Photonics Colloquium Room, 9th floor of 8 St. Mary’s Street, Boston MA
When: November 13, 2013, 6 pm lecture, reception to follow
Free and Open to the public
Co-Sponsored by the BU Center for the Humanities, BU Department of Religion, BU MLCL and BU CSA